Needle carriers



United States atent NEEDLE CARRIERS Bernard N. Pierce, West Hartford,Conn., assignor to The Merrow Machine Company, Hartford, onn., acorporation of Connecticut Application June 9, 1953, Serial No. 360,495

1 Claim. (Cl. 112-256) This invention relates to sewing machines, andmore particularly to needle carriers for sewing machines.

In certain overseaming machines, a curved eye-pointed needle isoscillated to follow an arcuate path extending above and below a needleplate for cooperation with looper elements in the formation of overedgestitches. Sewing machines of this type are operated at high rates ofspeed and it is important that bearing surfaces of the needle carrierand of the pivotal support for the carrier be kept lubricatedcontinuously with a film of oil therebetween. During operation of such amachine, vibration and centrifugal forces cause a slight flow of oil tobe diverted from the bearing surfaces, this diverted oil tending toaccumulate on the outer face and adjacent areas of the needle carrier insutficient quantity to be thrown onto the work material a it is fed overthe work support and the needle plate therebelow. A partial solution ofthis troublesome problem is disclosed in my Patent No. 2,549,232, issuedApril 17, 1951, and assigned to the same assignee as the presentapplication.

It is an object of this invention to provide an arrangement which willmore completely prevent discharge of oil from a needle carrier onto workmaterial or over portions of the machine frame where presence of oilwould be detrimental.

In the attainment of this objective, one feature of this inventionresides in the arrangement of a fin extending from the peripheralsurface of a pivotally supported hub of a needle carrier to collect anddivert oil moving toward the exterior surface of the hub after seepingfrom sources to which it is supplied for desired lubrication. This finextends from a peripheral portion of the needle carrier hub below theaxis about which the needle carrier oscillates and diverges from theaxis toward the machine frame. Thus gravity, when the carrier is atrest, and/or centrifugal force, when the carrier oscillates at highspeed, cause the oil to flow and collect upon the fin. The outer ordistal edge of the fin is inclined to the axis of movement of the needlecarrier with the end of the fin most distant from the axis substantiallycontiguous to a stationary surface of the machine frame. From this endof the fin most remote from the carrier axis oil is discharged upon aportion of the machine frame where it is not detrimental.

The features of this invention which I believe to be novel are set forthwith particularity in the appended claim. My invention itself, however,both as to its organization and use, together with further objects andadvantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the followingdescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a front view, partly in section, of a needle carrier embodyingmy invention;

Fig. 2 is a view in section along line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the needle carrier and of the parts bywhich it is actuated, as seen from the left in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but with the needle and carrier in aposition at the opposite extreme of its range of movement to that shownin the view of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawing, certain of the machine elements shown arecharacteristic of an overseaming machine of the well-known Merrow typesuch as illustrated in the above-identified United States patent. Thecurved eye-pointed needle 1 in this type of sewing machine is held foroscillatory movement in a carrier 4 having a hub 5 and a web portion 6at the outer end of the hub, the latter being provided with a taperedbearing hole 7. Web 6 merges into an arm 8 from which, on the hub sideof the web, a stud 9 extends, and at a free extremity of the Web a head10 extends oppositely, somewhat beyond the plane of the outer websurface 11. Head 10 is provided with a stud 12 to receive thereon awasher 13, which is keyed to the head as at 14 to prevent relativeturning movement. A nut 15 is threaded on stud 12 and serves to urgeclamp or washer 13 toward head 10 to secure therebetween the needleshank 16 which passes through a hole in stud 12. Stud 9, on the shortarm 8 of the needle carrier, receives a link connection 19 which isassociated with carrier actuating mechanism hereinafter described.

Serving to pivotally support carrier 4, is a screw threaded stud 20having a slotted head 21 which is longitudinally tapered to correspondto the taper of hole 7 in said carrier. With the wall of hole 7 engagedby stud 20, the latter may be screwed into machine frame 22 until theinner end surface of hub 5 is brought into engagement with frame surface23 to thereby establish bearing fit between respective tapered surfacesof the stud and carrier. Proper adjustment of stud 20 may be secured indesired precise relation by set screw 24 (see Fig. 2). The bearingsurface of head 21 of stud 20 is of a length that is shorter than hole 7for the purpose of leaving within the outer end of hole 7, a space orrecess 25. A channel or duct 17 is formed in the outer face of carrier 4and intersects the wall of tapered hole 7 and the peripheral surface ofweb 6 in proximity to where the latter projects as a rib 18 onlyslightly beyond the similar surface of hub 5. Duct 17 forms an exitthrough which oil exuded from between the pivotal bearing surfaces mayescape and be harmlessly disposed of as will presently appear.

Mechanism for actuating the needle carrier 4 includes a driven shaft 26having a head 27 journaled in machine frame 22. A stud 28 eccentricallydisposed on head 27 is coupled by link 19 with stud 9 on carrier 4.Thus, rotation of shaft 26 moves link 19 so that the needle carrier isoscillated about its pivotal axis to move the needle in the arcuate pathwhich it travels in making successive penetrations of work as Wsupported on needle plate 29 and work support 30 (Fig. 1). Extremepositions of the needle carrier in its range of movement in this arcuatepath are shown respectively in Figs. 3 and 4.

For lubricating the several bearing surfaces indicated in the abovedescription, oil may be applied through hole 31 (Fig. 1). From thissource oil traversing the bearing of shaft head 27 and passing through achannel 32 in face 23 of machine frame 22 is delivered to the bearingsurface between carrier 4 and its supporting stud 20 whence it passesoutwardly into the recess 25 formed by the wall of hole 7 at the end ofthe bearing surface of the stud 20. Oil in this recess under the effectof gravity tends to flow downwardly toward channel or duct 17. This oilis also acted upon by centrifugal force created by movement of carrier4, and is therefore expelled through channel 17, or in other words,diverted from moving out onto the outer lateral face of said carrierwhere it is objectionable for the reason already stated.

To bring about desirable disposal of oil moving from channel 17, whetherthe oil is affected predominately by centrifugal force, as when thecarrier oscillates at high speed, or by gravity, as when the carrier isat rest, fin 35, formed integrally with or suitably secured as bybrazing 35 to the carrier hub 5, serves as an effective oil collector.This fin 35 preferably extends along hubS from adjacent the machineframe 22 to slightly beyond the outer face 11 of web 6. The distal edge36 of fin 35 in its longitudinal extent is inclined with respect to thepivotal axis of carrier 4, with the direction of inclination toward themachine frame surface 23 divergent to said axis. Thus whether thecarrier is in motion or at rest oil accumulated on fin 35 moves to theend of the fin that is most distant from the axis of motion of thecarrier and from thence is transferred to a surface of the machine framewhere it is not detrimental.

While most of the .oil passing through channel 17 is removed from thecarrier by fin 35, a small amount goes onto that portion of theperimeter of web 6 that is between fin 3S and arm 8. This trace of oilunder the influence of centrifugal force moves onto arm 8 where it isutilized to lubricate the pivotal connection between stud 9 and link 19and better to effect this purpose the outer edge of arm 8 is beveled asat 37; that is, an inclined surface is formed at the base of stud 9 andextended toward the base of the arm into proximity with channel 17. Oilthus delivered to the periphery of arm 8 and subjected to centrifugalforce when the carrier is oscillated, is prevented from moving beyondarm 8 toward needle carrying head 10 by virtue of the projection of arm8 beyond the perimetric surface 38 which leads to head 10.

While the needle carrier herein shown and described is provided with ahollow hub and supported on a stationary stud, it is distinctly to beunderstood that the conception of applying an oil diverting fin to theperipheral surface of a needle carrier is susceptable ofsimilarapplicationto a needle carrier which forms an outer terminalportion of a rock shaft suitable for support in a bearing or bearings ofa machine frame. The present invention therefore is not limited to theexact details herein shown and described and the principles involved maybe applied in other mechanisms without departure from the scope of theinvention as defined by the appendedclairn.

Having thus described my invention, What I clairn is;

In a sewing machine, a support, a stud projecting horizontally outwardlyfrom said support, a needle carrier member having a hub and a webportion extending from said hub, said hub being formed with a holehaving a bearing fit on said stud to thereby pivotally mount saidcarrier on said support for movement about the horizontal axi of saidstud, said hub extending outwardly from said support beyond the outerend of said stud to provide an oil collecting recess at the outer .endof said stud, said carrier being formed with a duct extending from saidrecess to the outer periphery of said carrier, and a fin at the outerperiphery of said hub below said horizontal axis adjacent the outlet ofsaid duct and extending longitudinally of said hub, the distal edge ofsaid fin being inclined with respect to said axis so as to direct oil onthe fin toward the surface of said support.

References Cited in the file of this patent I UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,278,973

